When it comes to nutrition apps, we have certainly heard of the popular ones: MyFitnessPal, Lose It!, even My Macros+. Today we are taking an inside look at the brand-new app from renowned coach and personality Layne Norton.
For starters, let's look at Carbon's app store description...
Carbon Diet Coach is a science-based nutrition app designed by renowned nutrition coaches Dr. Layne Norton (Ph.D. Nutritional Sciences), Holly Baxter (MS Dietetics), and Registered Dietitian Keith Kraker (BS Dietetics).
It does everything a normal nutrition coach would but at a fraction of the cost. Simply select your goal, answer a few short questions, and it does the rest! You will get a customized nutrition plan based on YOUR goals and metabolism.
What's more, Carbon will adjust the plan as you progress to optimize your results. If you hit a plateau or stall, Carbon will make adjustments to keep you progressing towards your goal, just like any good coach would. Our coaching system uses the latest techniques in nutrition science to make sure you get the best results possible.
All you need to do is follow these simple steps:
∙ Log your food using the built-in food tracker
∙ Log your body weight
∙ Check-in each week
Do that and Carbon does the rest!
Well if you ask us that sounds pretty darn promising! We downloaded the app and paid for the service (no paid partnership here, just an honest first look)!
Upon opening the app, you are immediately going to be greeted to create an account and face a pay wall. It appears the app may be a freemium model (access to basic features for free and pay for coaching) but this was quickly dispelled. The Carbon Diet Coaching services break down as the following:
Monthly = $9.99 USD
6 Months = $49.99 USD
Yearly = $79.99 USD
$10 for a month, when compared to spending between $40-150 for working 1-on-1 with a nutrition coach, is pretty reasonable! For the price of a Netflix subscription, you can have an app that takes your real-life data and creates a nutrition plan specifically for YOU!
Once you are past the pay wall, the app resembles closer to My Macros+ than it does MyFitnessPal. Immediately, we clicked to set up our custom macros that we calculated using our free calculator here. Setup was very easy using this method. Next up, we tried setting up a goal using the built-in-questionnaire. These were the questions it asked for (underlined the ones we picked for testing)
- What’s your goal (lose weight, gain weight, maintain weight, reverse diet)
- Tell us about yourself (male, female) and birthday (September 19, 1993)
- Current weight (190 lbs.), goal weight (185 lbs.), do you know your body fat % (yes, no)
- Waist (32 inches)
- Describe your lifestyle (sedentary, light activity, moderate activity, active, very active)
- Describe your exercise (no exercise, light exercise, moderate exercise, hard exercise, extreme exercise)
- Rate your metabolism (slow, normal, fast, I’ve been tracking calories and know my maintenance)
- How fast do you want to lose weight (sliding scale between 0.8lbs/wk to 2.3 lbs/wk, selected 1.5 lbs/wk which was recommended)
- What diet do you prefer (balanced (recommended), reduced-carb, low-fat, plant-based, ketogenic)
The result, VERY similar to our macro calculator. It is worth noting, however, that the app will modify your goals as you continue to input your macros and weight.
Tracking a meal was simple, we clicked the “+” button and there are three options (search the database, create your own food, or use the barcode scanner). The database isn’t as robust as MyFitnessPal but it is also likely a lot more accurate.
First looks into this app are very promising! Stay tuned as we dig into a future review. In the meantime? Check out this Q+A with cofounder and Registered Dietician Kieth Kraker.